Global warming too. Needless disposal of old tubes, and extra production of new tubes.

How old is the air in the tubes?

Since a new tube is less than $5, I don't see why anyone would chance patching it & reusing. Just how I think.

+1 This. I have wheels with 30 year old tubes still doing fine. The tubes are protected from degradation by UV light and ozone by the tire, and will last until they're irreparably punctured.

I blame Bush and global atmospheric perturbation.

And don't let your mother catch you perturbating.

Anyway, I thought the OPs question was a good one. I recently flatted because the tube around the valve stem became unhinged, and is thought perhaps I had been guilty of negligence for not changing the tube out prophylacticly.

Since a patch costs just pennies and holds air perfectly I don't see why anyone would ever spend $5 on a new tube. Just how I think.

Am I a bit over cautious, maybe it's a hold over in my brain from riding motorcycles, front flats, especially while descending, are scary shizzle. YMMV

If the old, well-tested, tube is patchable why would I risk using a newly bought tube that might have a manufacturing defect?

I've experienced more of those than failures of patches. Only buy new tubes when the old one can't be patched so my tubes last much longer than my tires.

+1
Patches hold air perfectly, so I'd rather not spend $5 each time I flat. Patching is cheap, and I can be sure the tube is free of manufacturing defects.

no.

Just had one of those on a tube that was about 2 years old. I remember only because the presta stem broke of at the top of the stem on that one. But it still took air, so I kept using it. Was sitting in the living room several hours after a ride and suddenly heard a rush of air from the bike room. (It was loud enough that at first I thought there was a water leak in the bathroom.) Took it off to find multiple holes in the stem area. Odd that they just sort of opened up while the bike was just sitting.

It did leave me wondering if a couple years was the natural life span of the tube.

i am really disappointed with the valves of many of my tubes. either the whole valve tears at the base wher it joins the rubber or the plunger in the top of the valve breaks off. Very poor. poor.

I went tubeless last year. So did the GF. She punctured yesterday but didn't get a flat. Pretty cool.

+0010

In all these years, I may have had 1 or 2 bad tubes. I buy whatever is on sale.

At the risk of piling on here, in addition to the wasted effort, and expense, you'd be likely to get more flats by changing out a perfectly good tube.

You know the tube that's in there is not defective, and is properly seated. If you put a new one in, you can tear it installing it; you can fial to get it seated correctly and get a blowout, and you have a slight possibility that the new tube would be defective.

as a public service, i will name the disappointing tubes. Vittorio ripped 2 valves out of the rubber seating. Cheng Shin (makers of maxis) snapped off valve plungers.

i used different pumps so I guess it is not a dodgy pump head.

Might have something to do with the stresses you apply when pumping. Do you use a frame pump or pump without a hose?

nope. floor pump with hose. i do not own a frame pump here and I have not had a roadside puncture for 4 years.

A patch costs a few cents and when properly installed will last as long as the tube and will be the strongest point on the tube.

Tossing away $5.00 for a new tube and tossing the old tube is wasteful to a very high degree.

But you only need one extra $5 tube to avoid needing to patch on the road (for the vast majority of flats). Use spare tube on the road. Save tube with hole. Patch at home ( where it's easier to locate small holes) and reuse the patched tube.

Convenient, and no waste.

I carry a spare tube that may or may not have patches on it... I don't get many of them so some of the spares are still pretty fresh.

After one has been riding for a while you collect a few extra tubes.

If I didn't buy new tubes from my LBS they would go out of business.

I patched a tube last night that went flat after I had finished my ride. Just for practice since I normally just replace the tube. This morning when I got up, the patched tube was flat. I have to investigate what happened. Maybe I just suck at patching.